


Skin to Touch

by lionessvalenti



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eavesdropping, F/F, F/M, Stolen Moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-30 18:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12114402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: Gamora and Peter find a security feed of Nebula trying to flirt. It gets intense.





	Skin to Touch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [veleda_k](https://archiveofourown.org/users/veleda_k/gifts).



"Whatcha watching?" Peter asked as he climbed up into the surveillance hub of the ship they had... borrowed. With every intention of returning at a later date. The hub was a little nest at in the middle of the ship with screens monitoring nearly every room, including, strangely enough, the surveillance hub itself.

Gamora shushed him with the wave of her hand, her eyes never wavering from one specific screen.

Peter sat down next to her and followed her gaze to the screen featuring Nebula and Mantis in an alcove just beyond the engine room. As long as the engine wasn't on fire (that definitely hadn't happened in the time they had the ship), it was a pretty quiet area with little foot traffic.

"What's going on here?" Peter asked.

On the screen, Nebula looked over at Mantis, who was smiling patiently, and then she looked away. The fingers on her metal hand clenched into a fist.

Gamora sighed. "I was keeping an eye on Nebula--"

"Smart."

"--and she summoned Mantis here. I'm not sure where it's going. She hasn't said anything, and Mantis isn't even aware that Nebula is... I don't know what she's doing."

"Picking us off one by one, starting with the physically weakest?" Peter suggested.

Gamora tore her gaze away from the screen to finally look at Peter. "I thought about that, but they've been sitting there for almost ten minutes and if Nebula wanted to kill her, she would have done it nine minutes ago."

"Good point." Peter watched Nebula on the screen. She didn't look like she was about to kill anyone. Her hands were in her lap, and when she wasn't darting her gaze up at Mantis, she kept her eyes to the ground. Gamora wasn't wrong; something was definitely off with Nebula, but not in any way that could be explained by _crazy murder robot_. And then he realized:

"Oh my god. She's trying to flirt! Nebula's trying to flirt with Mantis!" He pointed at the screen, as if Gamora didn't know where it was.

"What?" Gamora asked, her head snapping back the screen.

"She's trying to flirt! Turn up the volume -- whoa, I didn't know Nebula was gay. I mean, that's cool, I don't care, I just didn't know. I didn't even know she had any kind of--"

Gamora held up a hand to his face to silence him. "Peter, I swear to you, if you keep talking, I will hit you very hard over the head."

But she did turn up the volume.

"We do not have to talk. We can sit here." Mantis smiled brightly at Nebula. "I like it here."

Nebula swallowed audibly. "I do not. I find it very difficult to focus when I am around you."

Mantis frowned, her antennae lowering. "Should I leave?"

"No. But you are making me... weak. And I have to be strong. So when I find Thanos and I murder him slowly, I will not be restrained by these... _feelings_." Nebula turned her face away and spat on the floor. "I do not understand."

At this, Mantis brightened. "I understand feelings!" She held out her hands to Nebula, palms up. "If you let me touch you, I can help you understand your emotions."

Nebula stared at Mantis' outstretched hands. "I don't know if anything left of me is skin to touch."

"I will find it," Mantis replied, and reached up to touch Nebula's cheek. Her antennae did not light up with empathy, but she still frowned slightly. "You are cold."

"You are soft and small. And very naive."

("Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Peter mumbled, quiet enough to keep Gamora from hitting him, but loud enough for her to give him a quick glare.)

Mantis blinked at her as she moved her hand down Nebula's neck until she find a patch of bare skin just below her collarbone. Her antennae lit up and instantly, Mantis' eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, Nebula, you are so angry, and you're afraid. You feel lost... confused, and ravaged, but also..." She tilted her head up so she could gaze right into Nebula's dark eyes. "You feel lust. For me?"

"You are..." Nebula shifted, but instead of pulling away, she placed her hand -- the one made of synthetic flesh -- over Mantis', and held her there. "You are everything I am not. I should despise you, but instead you consume me."

Mantis' eyes grew somehow wider. "I do not understand."

Nebula shook her head. "Neither do I."

Gamora switched off the monitor. The hub went silent, except for the hum of equipment, and music playing softly from another monitor, but there was no telling which one, or the source of the music in the first place.

"Hey!" Peter said. "That was just getting good!"

"They should have privacy," Gamora said.

"Oh, come on -- whoa, hey are you crying?" Peter scooted closer to her. Sure enough, a couple of tears, actual _tears_ , rolled down Gamora's cheeks.

"No," Gamora replied, despite the evidence to the contrary. "I didn't know if Nebula could feel at all anymore. With every piece of her body that Thanos tore away, she lost more than flesh. I thought for so long he had distilled her down to nothing but hate. She would never show me this part of her, but -- Peter." She turned her face toward him and smiled. "She still has love, somewhere in her. It's there."

Peter could have made a joke, a crack at Nebula's expense, but he had the sense to read the room. He slid his arm around Gamora's shoulders and pulled her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, and he smiled. "It's pretty great."


End file.
